Housing prices surge in May

New home prices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou rose in May at the quickest pace since early 2011 despite government efforts to slow runaway costs, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics. All but one of the 70 cities followed by the bureau showed an increase in prices. In March, the government enacted policies to control price increases which have far outpaced growth in wages. Leaders are hesitant to follow up with more cooling measures that could potetntially limit their ability to counter a slowing economy, which is highly dependent on the property market.